Airport Water Consumption Footprinting

Abstract

The study focused on water consumption footprinting and development of water efficiency plan for an airport located in Turkey. Airports are facilities having large water consumption, generally for non-potable purposes such as water cooling systems, fire control, cleaning and washing of vehicles, runways and aircrafts and also public uses (WC, food service). Research period covered 12 months and consumption data obtained from 116 water meters were evaluated for water footprinting. Along a year the airport served to about 12 million passengers and 81 thousand aircrafts. These passengers and aircrafts were served by various services by airport authorities. These services were linked by water consumption directly or indirectly. Study results showed that annual water consumption was about 436000 m3/year. Irrigation, fire control system, cooling towers and terminal WC uses accounted high use with rate of 23%, 7%, 26% and 20 %. While water used for WC changed between about 6-8.5 L per pax, this value was between 1-1.5 L per pax for food consumption. Therefore passenger based uses fluctuated between 6.5-10 L per pax in the airport. Based on this analysis several methods were suggested to minimize water consumption. Among them “training and education of airport staff” was proposed as the most economical solution. Furthermore “improved water consumption monitoring” system could be suggested as applicable method considering economical and physical aspects and should gain priority. Then alternative measures could be chosen based on their economical and physical applicability.